Body Seams

[Jim Nilsen]

Originally Posted by elitecustombody

Jim, just wondering,you're stating that your seam sealer is somehow stronger than lead,brazing or welding?

If someone if planning on putting their car through extremes,they would have a cage,SFCs to make the unibody more rigid, and if the welds are done right,the seams will not crack if welded,simply take the time to not only run a bead on the exterior, but reinforce them from the backside and all corners,

Leading will still crack if seams are not reinforced,brazing and leading would be a better option if welding is out of the question.

I am saying the seam sealer is less likely to crack at the paint and that if you weld the seam you make the steel brittle and it can crack at the edge of the weld not at the seam anymore.

If you have a leaf spring car the loads on the rear panel and rear window areas take a lot of twisting loads, if you have a 4 link or other type of suspension the loads aren't transmitted though the quarter panels anymore. It really depends on the car if you can get away with welding seams, but the way we thrash our cars we put a lot of stress on the skin and even a 10 point cage won't stop some of it from still happening.

Most of the high end cars just use regular factory style seam sealer and let you see them ,so it's not that big of a deal when you can see them compared to when the paint cracks and you get water in your seams.

I also seam welded my wheel wells, rockers on the pinchweld end so I didn't have to use seam sealer on them at all. The use of seam sealer was kept to a minimum so it would stop any chances of water getting up in the pinchweld.

Hope that makes it a bit more clear.


I made sure my seams were hammered and dollied to the exact shape to match each sides on all the pinch welds and I added lots of extra spot welds to make it all stronger. Putting the extra spot welds in put the stress of the load at a different angle and allows the corner strength of the bend on the pinch weld to work for you.